Monday, September 16, 2013

Creatives Club: Interview with Alex from Follow The Leader Club

Here at Element Eden we love to support and encourage creativity in all forms. So our latest project is the Element Eden ‘creative’s club’. The purpose of the creative club is to find amazingly talented girls who are out there creating beautiful things.

Today we interviewed Alex, from Follow The Leader Club. At just 24 years of age, this girl has travelled the world, studied interior design and sustainable development, then discovered her passion for floristry, gained priceless knowledge through being mentored by the owners of Melbourne’s iconic Brunswick Street florist ‘Flowers Vasette’, completed a floristry course at TAFE and has started an awesome blog with her younger sister Sami. Impressed? Yeah, so were we.

‘Follow the Leader Club’ is the latest project Alex and her photographer sister Sami have created. The blog shows a side to the Gold Coast many have forgotten or never knew existed. It’s bringing what the girls loved about growing up on the Coast to light again, and it’s a truly fascinating journey taking you through interviews with some old school Gold Coast locals.

But aside from the collaborative blog, the sisters have their own separate projects. Sami is currently travelling the world with her camera in hand, whilst Alex has been selected to create some of her beautiful floral art for the “Artists’ Space” backstage at the world renowned music festival Splendour in the Grass at the end of July.

For our interview, Alex demonstrated to us how she creates a wall hanging piece. Thanking her father and other male members of her family for the fact they work on job sites for it gave her access to endless pieces of random junk that Alex could use and incorporate into her work.

Alex describes her process of creating her floral artwork as a “chaotic mess” but to us, eagerly watching as she grabbed banana leaves and orchids, working her magic, we were mesmerized by the beauty being created so effortlessly before our eyes.

Listening to Alex talk, she speaks with a highly enthusiastic and informative passion for not only nature but for her love of floristry and all things creative.

Element Eden had a truly lovely afternoon getting to know this beautiful creative bohemian soul, and chatted with her about her favourite pieces from the Element Eden Summer 13 Range!!!

Getting to know Alex from ‘Follow the Leader Club’ a little bit more….

HOW DID YOU FIRST GET INTO FLORISTRY?

“It came from my sustainable development studies, creating things out of natural products led to wanting to use plants to create a beautiful, natural non-permanent interior space.”

WHERE DO YOU GATHER INSPIRATION FROM?

“I gather my inspiration from all the creative people in my family and a lot of it comes from that nostalgia of times with my family.”

WHO ARE SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE ARTISTS?

“One of my favourite artists is Linder Sterling; she is a 1960’s British artist and feminist who used pornographic photographs of women and made them into these beautiful works of art with the objective to show that these photos of women are beautiful and not just for men.”

HOW DID FOLLOW THE LEADER CLUB COME ABOUT?

“The name came straight from Sami (laughs), that was all her but it came about from while we were travelling around Europe. We met all these people who were so passionate about where they came from and hearing them talk about their homes and we ended up travelling to a lot of those places and we fell in love with them too. So we wanted to find and discover why we loved our home and for us, a lot of it was memories from when we were younger and the Gold Coast was a lot different then, before everything got developed and had a council sign on it. So we want to share these really cool places that we find and the stories behind them.”

FAVORITE SONG AT THE MOMENT?

The brains behind Infinitely Sad Radio (Edward, Alex’s boyfriend’s online radio) taught me to appreciate whole albums, so I've got a few favourites. Like for example, Edward introduced me to Bill Callahan’s “Sometimes I wish I was an Eagle”! But I've been creating some strange yet wonderful things thanks to Captain Beefheart ‘s “Trout Mask Replica”!

WHAT’S YOUR GUILTY PLEASURE?

I have many! Depending on mood, day, time and circumstance. But you'll always find me drinking too much tea, enjoying John Bostons treats (“they taste better stolen”), borrowing my brother Williams’s clothes, sleeping in my sister Sami’s bed and spending money I don't have on flowers for no particular reason at all.

(FINISH THIS SENTENCE) “I COULDN’T LIVE WITHOUT….”

Nap time, a ritual I've tried to carry on since preschool. My nearest and dearest, and Mother Nature’s precious gifts (everything, and I mean everything, evolves from them).